Freedom of speech and freedom of the press

The Press Law, Publications Law, and the penal code regulate and
govern the press. According to these, criticism of the president
can be punished by fines or imprisonment. Freedom House deems Egypt to have an unfree
press, although mentions they have a diversity of sources. Reporters Without Borders 2006
report indicates continued harassment and, in three cases,
imprisonment, of journalists. They place Egypt 143rd out of 167
nations on press freedoms. The two sources agree that promised
reforms on the subject have been disappointingly slow or uneven in
implementation. Freedomhouse had a slightly more positive
assessment indicating that an increased freedom to discuss
controversial issues has occurred.

According to Al Jazeera.net, "in the past few years, independent
Egyptian newspapers have emerged that have proved willing to hold
the rich and powerful elite to account, right up to the presidency.
The old state-owned newspapers are beginning to lose their
readership." In July 2006, the Egyptian parliament passed a new
press law. The new law no longer allows journalists to be
imprisoned for comments against the government, but continues to
allow fines to be levied against such journalists. The independent
press and the Muslim Brotherhood protested this law as
repressive.

Although the Egyptian Government rarely bans foreign newspapers, in
September 2006, Egypt banned editions of Le
Figaro and Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung, because of their publication of articles deemed
insulting to Islam. According to Al Jazeera, the German newspaper
contained an article authored by the German historian Egon Flaig, "looking at how the Prophet Muhammad,
the founder of Islam, was a successful military leader during his
lifetime". Al Jazeera quotes the Egyptian minister of information
as saying that he, "would not allow any publication that insults
the Islamic religion or calls for hatred or contempt of any
religion to be distributed inside Egypt."

Freedom of religion

Islam is the official state religion of Egypt.
Practices conflicting with Islamic law, Sharia, are prohibited. The practice of Christianity or Judaism
is not felt to conflict with Sharia. According to a 2003 US State
Department report, "members of the non-Muslim minority worship
without harassment. The government has made efforts toward greater
religious pluralism and Christians are a significant minority who
have served in government. Coptic Christmas (January 7) has been a national holiday since
2002.

That said,
intolerance at a cultural and political level remains according to
two US-based
sources.Islam is the state religion
and the government controls the major mosques. There have been disputes between Pope Shenouda III of
Alexandria and the government. Christians have found the
building and repair of churches, however, to be problematic.
Government regulations dating from Ottoman times require
non-Muslims to obtain presidential decrees before building or
repair a place of worship. Although in 1999 President Mubarak issued a decree making repairs of all places
of worship subject to a 1976 civil construction code, in practice
Christians report difficulty obtaining permits. Once permits have
been obtained, Christians report being prevented from performing
repairs or building by local authorities.

Human Rights Watch also indicates
issues of concern. For example they discuss how the law does not
recognize conversion from Islam to other
religions. They also mention strict laws against insulting Islam, Christianity or
Judaism and detention for unorthodox sects
of Islam. In 1960, Bahá'í
institutions and community activities were banned by Presidential
decree of President Gamal Abdel
Nasser. All Bahá'í community properties, including Bahá'í
centers, libraries, and cemeteries, were subsequently confiscated.
Bahá'ís are also not allowed to hold identity cards, and are thus,
among other things, not able to own property, attend university,
have a business, obtain birth, marriage and death certificates.
This ban had not been rescinded as of 2003. In 2001 18 Egyptian
Bahá'ís were arrested on "suspicion of insulting religion" and
detained several months without being formally charged.

On 6 April 2006, the Administrative Court ruled in favour of
recognising the right of Egyptian Bahá'ís to have their religion
acknowledged on official documents." However, on 15 May 2006, after
a government appeal, the ruling was suspended by the Supreme
Administrative Court. On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing,
the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the
Bahá'ís and stating that the government may not recognize the
Bahá'í Faith in official identification numbers. The ruling left
Bahá'ís unable to obtain the necessary government documents to have
rights in their country unless they lie about their religion, which
conflicts with Bahá'í religious principle. Bahá'ís cannot obtain
identification cards, birth certificates, death certificates,
marriage or divorce certificates, or passports. Without those
documents, they cannot be employed, educated, treated in hospitals,
or vote, among other things. In 2008, a Cairo court ruled that
Bahá'ís may obtain birth certificates and identification documents,
so long as they omit their religion on court documents.

An Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity, Mohammed Beshoy Hegazy has recently
sued the Egyptian government to change his religion from Islam to
Christianity on his official ID card. Earlier this year, Egyptian
courts rejected an attempt by a group of Christians who had
previously converted to Islam but then returned to Christianity and
then sought to restore their original religion on their ID cards.
The case is currently before an appeals court.

Status of women

Domestic violence is not dealt with by many police in Egypt. Also
family law is traditionally based on Sharia.The Ministry of Health issued a decree in 1996
declaring female
circumcision unlawful and punishable under the Penal Code, and
according to UNICEF the prevalence of women
who have had this procedure has slowly declined from a baseline of
97% of women aged 15–49 since 1995. According to a report in the
British Medical JournalBMJ, "[t]he
issue came to prominence...when the CNN television news channel
broadcast a programme featuring a young girl being circumcised by a
barber in Cairo. ...Shocked at the images shown worldwide, the
Egyptian president was forced to agree to push legislation through
the People's Assembly to ban the operation.". Despite the ban, the
procedure continues to be practiced in Egypt and remains
controversial. In 2006, Al-Azhar University lecturers Dr. Muhammad Wahdan and Dr. Malika Zarrar
debated the topic in a televised debate. Dr. Zarrar, who
objected to the procedure, said..."Circumcision is always
brutal...I consider this to be a crime, in terms of both religious
and civil law". Dr. Wahdan defended the partial removal of the
clitoris for girls who Muslim doctors determine require it, saying
it prevents sexual arousal in women in whom it would be
inappropriate such as unmarried girls and spinsters. He cited
Muslim custom, Islamic law, and a study reporting that the
procedure is a determinant of chastity in Egyptian girls. He also
blamed the controversy about the procedure on the fact that the,
"West wants to impose its culture and philosophy on us." The ban
was controversial in the medical community as well. In the debates leading
up to the ban, a gynecologist at Cairo University, said that "Female circumcision is entrenched in
Islamic life and teaching," and, "called on the government to
implement training programmes for doctors to carry out the
operation under anaesthesia. Another doctor reportedly said,
"If my daughter is not circumcised no man is going to marry her."
Other MDs opposed the ban stating that the, "trauma of the
operation remains with the girl for the rest of her
life,..."[disputing] the argument that the procedure prevents women
from "moral deviation," and argued that it is not, "a legitimate
medical practice, and when it is conducted by untrained people it
frequently results in infection and other medical
problems..."

Status of homosexuals

Homosexuality is not technically illegal in Egypt, but is
considered taboo. Until recently, the
government denied that homosexuality existed in Egypt, but recently
official crackdowns have occurred for reasons felt to include the
desire to appease Islamic clerics, to distract from economic
issues, or as a cover-up for closet homosexuals in high places. In
2002, 52 men were rounded up on the Queen
Boat, a floating nightclub, by police, where they were beaten
and tortured. Eventually 29 were acquitted and 23 were convicted
for "debauchery and defaming Islam" and sentenced for up to five
years in prison with hard labor. Since the trial was held in a
state security court, no appeal was allowed. A spokesman for the
Muslim Brotherhood, a political
party rising in popularity in Egypt, condems homosexuality, saying,
"From my religious view, all the religious people, in Christianity,
in Judaism, condemn homosexuality," he says. "It is against the
whole sense in Egypt. The temper in Egypt is against
homosexuality." A government spokesman said the Queen Boat incident
was not a violation of human rights but, "actually an
interpretation of the norms of our society, the family values of
our society. And no one should judge us by their own values. And
some of these values in the West are actually in decay."

According to a report in the Egyptian press, "the government
accuses human rights groups of importing a Western agenda that
offends local religious and cultural values. Rights groups deny
this claim, but independent critics argue that it's not void of
some truth. Citing the failure of these groups to create a
grass-roots movement, critics point to "imported" issues such as
female genital mutilation and gay rights as proof that many human
rights groups have a Western agenda that seems more important than
pressing issues that matter to ordinary Egyptians—such as
environmental, labour, housing and educational rights," and says
that the issues brought up at the press conference to launch the
above report,"reminded some in the audience of US efforts to impose
its own vision of democracy in Egypt as part of the US
administration's plan for a Greater Middle East."

Conditions for detainees

In a 2005 report of the Egyptian Supreme
Council for Human Rights chaired by former UN secretary-general
and former Egyptian deputy prime minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali cites instances
of torture of detainees in Egyptian prisons and describes the
deaths while in custody of 9 individuals as, "regrettable
violations of the right to life." The report, "called for an end to
[a] state of emergency, which has been in force since 1981, saying
it provided a loophole by which the authorities prevent some
Egyptians enjoying their right to personal security."

According to an Al-Jazeera report, the
council asked government departments to respond to complaints, but
"The Interior Ministry, which runs the police force and the
prisons, ..answered [only] three out of 75 torture allegations."
The council also recommended that President Hosni Mubarak, "issue a decree freeing
detainees...in bad health."